There's snow business like snow business...

After the fresh fall of snow last night SW Trains continued their unerring service through Worcester Park. Not for me the feet-up-in-front-of-the-fire relaxation of a day off but because they were running on time I joined a select band of my fellow commuters in slogging my way into the office. Fair enough the train was five minutes late into Waterloo but considering the circumstances that's pretty darn good. If you couldn't make it to the station because the roads are stuffed then here are some pictures of what you missed.

[above] The SW Trains employee clearing the snow on the bridge drove in from Guildford. Not bad!

[above] Yes the man is trying to dig the van out and the car just to the right in front of him is spinning its wheels. Cars were waiting in the snow-less patch under the bridge and then using the grip to take a run-up to get past the lights.

Snow more puns

Just how many weather-related puns can a guy get through in one week!?!? There are limits to even my literary endurance, though thankfully commuting-wise the trains have been fine since Wednesday so I haven't had to resort to strange and tortuous routes to get to or from work. Parts of the pavements on Brinkley Road are still dangerous underfoot but these kind of conditions are the only ones where you're allowed to walk down the middle of the road without having people thinking you're some kind of "Care In The Community" reject.

Once again Metcheck and the Met Office disagree about how much snow/sleet/rain we're going to see today (some v none) so we'll have to see how it goes, though Monday night's looking potentially nasty although perhaps too warm for snow.

There's not been much happening in Worcester Park this week that isn't snow-related but those of you who remember the, currently closed, Huntsmans Hall's past as a Punch Tavern may be amused by the manner of the closure of another Punch Tavern in Oxford for, you've guessed it already, underage drinking. It seems like the local teens revelled in their lawlessness by, ermm, posting it on the internet for all to see. The Oxford Mail takes up the story:
"A pub has been shut down after police spotted teenagers bragging about boozing in the bar on an Internet site. Police launched an investigation into the Black Bull, in Kidlington, after being handed photographs showing youngsters posing with bottles of alcopops on social networking site Bebo. The teenagers posted messages on the site celebrating how they could get away with drinking in the pub – even though they were underage."

No trains

According to SW Trains emergency page they won't be running a service through WP today so your only chance is to go to New Malden for the 4-an-hour Waterloo to Waterloo trains round the Kingston/Twickenham loop or see if there's enough buses to get to Morden and get the Northern Line. I suspect that's where I'll be.

EDIT: The 93 bus was starting from Stonecot Hill and not going through North Cheam this morning. The 293 will take you from North Cheam to Morden, albeit using a very circuitous route.

UPDATE: The SW Trains website has more info on their service stopping at New Malden.
London Waterloo circular via Wimbledon, Kingston, Twickenham
Services will run from London Waterloo at 12, 27, 42 & 57 minutes past each hour via Wimbledon, Kingston and Twickenham
Services will run from London Waterloo at 03, 18, 33 & 48 minutes past each hour via Twickenham, Kingston and Wimbledon

Although the bus/tube combination worked OK this morning I think I'll try the train/bus combination on the way home.

Going snow-where

No trains, buses (and in some cases common sense) so we'll be off to the hill at the Hamptons with the sledge in a while. As usual the Great British Preparations didn't include gritting Central Road, meaning that the road is just packed down snow/ice so cars were only making it uphill as assisted by the Worcester Park public. As they say on the radio "Don't travel unless your journey is absolutely necessary".


The top of Washington Road

Looking down Washington Road

Central Road

Note the downhill side is solid snow

Oops

And to the guy who slid his way from Windsor Road across Central Road and down into Washington Road...... it's probably easier to drive if you're not on your mobile and driving one-handed.

Grit expectations

Woah! Has it snowed!

By about 10.30 Central Road looked like this:

so Neil and myself decided, in the spirit of neighbourly love, that we would perform a good deed.

so we went up to Central Road

and used grit from the bin to grit the top of the road to help the cars get out. Hope it helped!! If you were the couple who waved as you pulled out of the end of the road do let me know!!

Now for the second half of the Superbowl....

In case you hadn't noticed

It's snowing.

The Brinksters are already back from a foray out to Nonsuch Park and the little Brinksters are now parked in front of a blazing fire with the Peter Pan movie on the TV. It didn't seem to be settling on the roads or pavements much first thing this morning:

But no such problem in the park!!

Has to be the most snow we've had in years!!

Yes, it snowed

Along with pretty much everywhere else in the South East we got an inch of snow today. There was predictable travel chaos but thanks to the Worcester Park Train Times I was able to stay home until I knew there was a train coming

Anyway, here's a couple of photos, with a few more at the Worcester Park Gallery:

Sensible entry on such things as the new Sainsburys, closing of Choices video and our Broadway Bargains experience to follow......